


Rocks At My Window

by bubblegumkitsch



Series: Deep In The Heart [2]
Category: Demi Lovato (Musician), One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 04:26:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/819959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblegumkitsch/pseuds/bubblegumkitsch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demi's always busy during the day so Niall stops by at night :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rocks At My Window

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [x](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By4LcY0EvEk)

Demi has a schedule. Life just works better that way. Demi has a schedule and when she sticks to it, she always accomplishes what she needs to. She has times for eating, sleeping, school, work, extra curriculars, exercise, and, if she can manage, the occasional bit of socializing. 

Before, when Demi didn’t have a schedule, sometimes she would be amazing, riding that high wave of productivity for days or weeks, outshining everyone around her by a mile. But sometimes, without a schedule, without a plan, she’d get stuck. And when she was stuck, it took a lot to bring her out of it. It’s that feeling of when you first get into your car after it’s been sitting in a parking lot on a hot summer day. You’ve got places to go, and the car’s got enough gas to take there, but all you can do is sit and bake until the AC kicks in and you finally snap out of it, exhausted and sweaty and late for whatever you’d been planning on doing. 

And with just her mom and her sisters around, she can’t afford to get stuck. Demi can’t afford to stay in the same state too long. She has to keep moving, keep progressing, or else she’ll never make it outside of this town. So Demi sticks to her schedule, day in and day out. And it works for her. Even if it means she’s got a thousand lists running at once, pinned up on post-its around her room or stuffed into binders or scrawled on the back of her hand. If she writes something down, it gets done. 

By 10:30 on the night of the first day of school, Demi feels a wave of accomplishment as she crosses the last item off of her list, scratching it off with gusto and a bright green pen. She flops down onto her bed, yanks the cord on the lamp on her bedside table, and pulls the the sheet from the bottom of her bed all the way up to her neck. It’s still too hot to use her quilt because her mother refuses to turn the thermostat below 78º which does little to cut the 95º heat still seeping in from outside, but she can’t fall asleep without something on top of her. Even in her pjs, she feels too exposed. The ceiling fan creaks rhythmically as Demi tries to fall asleep, sending billowing puffs of air up under the sheet, tickling Demi’s shins every few minutes.

Demi is just dozing off when she is startled awake by an unfamiliar noise. _Thwap._ THWAP, then a pause. Then another loud _THWAP_ smacks against the glass of Demi’s bedroom window. 

“What in the world...?” she mumbles to herself, throwing off the sheet quickly and stumbling sleepily over to the window. She pushes the window open with a grunt and leans outside, peering over her front yard. It takes a moment for her to spot him but when she does there is no mistaking him. For one because of the tank top revealing bare, wiry, and, most importantly, flaking shoulders.

“You alright, then?” Niall asks, dumping the pile of pebbles in his hand onto the ground beside him and wiping his hand on his shorts.

“Just peachy, and you?” Demi huffs, steadying her elbows on the window frame and frowning down at Niall. 

Niall sways, rocking back and forth as he settles his hands on his hips “I’m good, I suppose.” he shrugs.

A pause lingers in the air as Demi looks down at Niall expectantly, an accusatory eyebrow raised as she sticks her head out questioningly. “And is there a reason you’re outside my house trying to break my window and wake up the whole street?” 

“Just stopped by for a chat! You said you were busy all day but you didn’t mention anything about nighttime, so I figured...” he leans forward, searching for Demi through the branches of the old cottonwood tree rooted in the front yard. 

“How did you know where my house was?” 

“Would you believe...I guessed? Luck of the Irish?” 

“No.”

“Okay, Selena told me.” Niall squints up at Demi hopefully. “So...you gonna let me in or what?” 

Demi glances back at the clock inside of her room. 11:14. Demi’s already lost all hope of getting in her solid seven hours of sleep so really now every second counts. “Much as I’d like to, my mom would kill me. Why don’t you come back during normal business hours?”

“Oh-ho no! You’re not getting rid of me that easily!” Niall takes a few steps forward towards the house. He may be insane but this kid has some serious gumption. 

“You realize this is breaking and entering!” Demi warns, nearly halfway out the window now, trying to keep and eye on Niall as he steps just out of her line of vision.

“Not if I don’t enter!” Demi hears some rustling, a grunt, and a hiss from Niall, “Shit! You didn’t tell me there were thorns all over these vines!” 

“Well you shouldn’t be climbing up that lattice in the first place. What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Niall is completely out of sight now, as he’s taken it upon himself to scale the side of her house, but she can still hear him. Judging by the thuds, the scraping, and the panting coming from just below her, the journey is a treacherous one, but finally, after much toil, Niall flings one arm up over the rain gutter and onto the roof outside Demi’s window.

The roof outside her window is only slightly slanted so Demi dares to swing her legs outside, keeping one arm hooked in the window frame to maintain her balance, to pull Niall the rest of the way up.

He’s a twig of kid, but he’s heavier than he looks. With a few tugs, Demi manages to pull Niall up onto the roof. Exhausted by the effort, they both fall down so they’re sitting, leaning up against the side of the house outside Demi’s window. Their breaths slow after a few moments as they drink in the dampness of the night air. 

“Lovely home.” Niall looks over at Demi, the biggest shit-eating grin she’s ever seen on someone plastered across his face.

Demi fights her first instinct to come up with some sarcastic retort. She’s too tired. And suddenly she’s hyper aware that she’s still in her pajamas. She fumbles with the hem of her mom’s old Shania Twain t-shirt, a futile attempt to pull it down a little further over the ratty pair of boxer shorts she’s wearing. “Thanks, I guess.”

“So,” Niall sighs, “down to my real business here.” He locks his fingers together and extends them forward with a loud crack. “I’d like to schedule an appointment.”

“An appointment? You know, if you want to get that scratch taken care of,” Demi gestures to the gash on Niall’s leg, which has been trickling blood onto the roof tiles ever since he made it up there, “you should really see a doctor....I don’t think I can help you.”

“Ha! No, it’s not that,” Niall takes off his right shoe, followed by his sock, which he places over the cut.

“That’s probably not sanitary,” Demi grimaces.

“Naah it’s fine,” Niall looks unphased as he puts on his shoe again, sans sock. “I just figured, since you’re so busy and all, if I wanted some face time with you, I might as well have you pencil me in. You can’t be busy _all_ of the time.” 

“You’d be surprised.”

“Okay, well, when are you free?”

“Hmmm,” Demi thinks over her weekly schedule in her head. “I’d have to check but I might be free on Saturday morning...around 9?”

Niall chokes back a laugh. “People are actually awake then?”

“I am,” she shrugs.

Niall mulls it over for a moment. “Well then, I will be, too!” 

Damn. Demi really thought he’d give up, faced with relinquishing his Saturday morning. Maybe she read him wrong. “Okay then how about we meet at Kel’s for breakfast. I’m willing to bet you’ve never had real southern biscuits and gravy”

Niall licks his lips, dreaming up a thousand fantasies of breakfast food, and Demi thinks maybe this won’t be so bad after all. “It’s a date then!”

“No it’s not. It’s breakfast!”

“Fair enough! It’s breakfast.” Niall leans back contentedly, crossing his feet at the ankles. Demi’s legs are extended too and sometimes when they shift, their feet graze against one another. Part of her feels like it’s an invasion of space for someone she’s known for such a short time, but another part, deep down in the pit of her stomach, feels like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Like if she leaned her head against Niall’s shoulder right now he wouldn’t even flinch. Like she could fall asleep just like this, the scratchy tar of the roof tiles still brushing against the backs of her thighs. 

Demi’s not sure how long they sit like that, the sound of the crickets chirping into the darkness and the occasional hoot of an owl in the distance, but after a while she snaps out of her stupor, realizing they’ve been quiet for quite some time. “So how’s Texas been treating you so far?”

“You mean other than the blistering heat? Fine I suppose.” He hesitates for a moment. “I always wanted to live in America at some point, but, and no offense, Denton was never really my first choice.”

“Trust me, pal, I don’t think it was anyone’s. First chance I get I’m getting out of here. Heading west. California, I think.”

“What’s in California?” 

“I don’t know...I guess it just always seemed kind of glamorous. I want to be a singer, you know? And LA and New York both seem like the places to go. And I don’t think I could handle the cold in the winter, so California it is.”

“I think you’d be surprised at what you can handle.”

“You don’t even know me like that.” Demi suddenly remembers everything she’s got on her plate at the moment. If she doesn’t go to sleep soon she’ll only get a couple of hours before she needs to wake up and make breakfast for everyone.

“No, I guess I don’t, but I think I’m right on this one. You say you’ll go to California and I can bet you’ll make it happen.”

His confidence in her is at once annoying and comforting. It’s strange how someone who barely knows her can make her feel like this. The way he’s so sure she can do it makes her want to accomplish even more than he thinks she can, just to prove him wrong. “So what about you, Irish? Big dreams?”

“Suppose I don’t really know yet. I like playing the guitar. And kind of like you, I don’t see myself staying around here too long. But aside from that I’m not too sure. I’ll go where the wind blows me. Wherever there’s good food and good music.”

“Yikes.”

“What’s wrong with that plan?” 

“Nothing. Except it’s not that much of a plan, is it?” 

“Maybe not. But it’ll all work out. You’ll see.” Niall elbows Demi in the ribcage, making her yelp loudly before retaliating with a punch to his shoulder

“I bet I will.” Niall rubs his shoulder and beams back at Demi as she attempts to stand up with some semblance of grace on the roof. “But for now I’ll sleep.”

Niall hops up easily and grabs Demi’s hand to guide her steadily through the still open window. Demi really should have shut it, there’ll be about a thousand mosquitoes waiting for her in there. Niall’s hands are soft and miraculously dry considering the swampy summer heat outside. He holds onto her hand just a second too long after she’s through the window and draws it away quickly once he’s realized it. 

“Alrighty then, good night, Niall.” Demi reaches up to latch the window shut.

“Wait, aren’t you gonna let me in so I can take the stairs down?” Niall pokes his head in the window expectantly.

“You got yourself up here, you can yourself down,” Demi shrugs and shuts the window, leaving a confused looking Niall peering over the edge of the roof. A moment later Demi hears a loud thud followed by a truly impressive string of curse words. She glances out the window again to see Niall standing, brushing himself off. He catches her watching in the window and gives a friendly wave, which Demi returns hesitantly before falling back into bed. She drifts off to sleep quickly, dreaming of the future and that strange blonde-haired boy.


End file.
